Factors Influencing Sustainability of Piped Water Project in Nakuru County: a Case of Nakuru Town West Sub-county, Kenya

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing the sustainability of piped water project in Nakuru Town West Sub-County. The Study Sought To Study The Influence of Stakeholder Involvement, Project Management, The Level of Education of Project Management Committee and Availability of Funds in the Sustainability of Piped Water Project. The study used descriptive survey research design targeting a popu-lation of 100 respondents comprising project beneficiaries, project management, govern-ment officials and experts in water management. The study used a stratified sampling technique to allocate 65% of the respondents from each stratum from the sample. The sample size in this study was 80 respondents comprising 52 project beneficiaries, 12 pro-ject management committee, 08 government officials and 08 experts in water manage-ment. Questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect data. The questionnaire was piloted at Eldama/Ravine sub-county among ten (10) respondents who did not form part of the actual study sample. Piloting aimed ensure that the data collection instruments was valid and reliable. Information from the pilot survey was incorporated into the ques-tionnaire before the actual data collection begun. Data collected was analyzed by qualita-tive and quantitative methodologies using percentages, means and frequency distribu-tions. The study will provide a baseline for future researchers, development agencies and possibly it would add up to the global knowledge on factors influencing the sustainability of piped water project. The responses of the study indicated that Stakeholder Involve-ment, Project Management, Level of Education of Project Management Committee and Availability of Funds do influence sustainability of piped water projects. It was also found out that lack of adequate consultation with stakeholders among the Project Man-agement Committee who manage the piped water project is also a key factor which influ-ences sustainability. If there is a perceived lack of adequate consultation with stakehold-ers, community members tend to withdraw their support for the piped water project. The study recommends that stakeholder involvement in the whole project cycle should be en-hanced, there should be high level of consultation in the project management of water project, County Government should have adequate budgets for piped water projects de-signed for sustainability and organizations should strongly support monitoring and evalu-ation of their water project beside ensuring that community responsible for management and operation of piped water project are well trained in operation and maintenance. Fur-ther studies should be conducted on; how gender influences sustainability of piped water project, the influence that community member‟s disputes have on the sustainability of piped water project and Influence of project location on sustainability of non-piped water project.